Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Sierra Leone and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Symarip to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Ossler. All the underground hits.
All Nas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every ABC record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Colin Newman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ultravox,
Rod Modell,
Dead Boys,
Eric Dolphy,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Moleskins,
Bill Wells,
Rekid,
Ultra Naté,
The Doors,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Kinks,
June of 44,
Pere Ubu,
Moby Grape,
Lindisfarne,
The Smoke,
The Shadows of Knight,
DNA,
Man Parrish,
Sight & Sound,
Anthony Braxton,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Janne Schatter,
Ultimate Spinach,
Boogie Down Productions,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
New York Dolls,
The Walker Brothers,
The Grass Roots,
Brass Construction,
The Dirtbombs,
The Blackbyrds,
Young Marble Giants,
The Sonics,
The Pretty Things,
China Crisis,
Donald Byrd,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Junior Murvin,
the Soft Cell,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
June Days,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Model 500,
the Bar-Kays,
Throbbing Gristle,
This Heat,
Deakin,
kango's stein massive,
The Leaves,
Cymande,
The Divine Comedy,
Colin Newman,
Grey Daturas,
Unrelated Segments,
The Music Machine,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Scan 7,
Barbara Tucker,
Bad Manners,
Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins, Hasil Adkins.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.